This was shared by comScore, Inc. as it introduced comScore Segment Metrix, a new tool that works with a variety of consumer segmentation schemes.

ComScore, which defined Heavy segment group as the top 20 percent of consumers, based on time spent online at the category of sites, also shared that Marriott is the only hotel company to appear in this group of travel sites that attract the highest proportion of Heavy travel site users.

ComScore referred to the travel category as it shared benefits of its new tool, which give marketers the ability to track, analyse and report Internet activity by their most important consumer groups.

The key benefits of comScore Segment Metrix include:

- Media owners will be able to determine if they are getting their fair share of heavy users of their category of sites;

- Agencies and advertisers will have better insight into how to reach important target customers.

- Advertisers can now integrate their offline marketing segmentation schemes with comScore’s online panel allowing them to track, analyse and report online behaviour by these important (offline) consumer segments.

“Consumer segmentation is not new -- it is an important part of marketing, and over the years comScore has conducted a great deal of custom segmentation work,” said Bob Ivins, comScore Executive VP. “comScore Segment Metrix enables segmentation on a broad scale, offering marketers the ability to analyse online trends by key consumer segments and from several different perspectives for themselves and their competition.”

The Heavy segment group will be defined as the top 20 percent of consumers, based on time spent online at the category of sites; the Medium group will be defined as the middle 30 percent; and the Light users are the lightest 50 percent.

An analysis of Heavy visitors to the travel category revealed that the 10 sites with the highest Heavy visitor concentration were, not surprisingly, travel sites led by US Airways Group (67.2 percent concentration of Heavy travel visitors), United Airlines (60.9 percent) and Delta Airlines (60.7 percent).

According to the company, one might naturally assume that Heavy travel category visitors are so-called “road warriors”, or frequent business travelers. However, a study of the large non-travel sites visited by Heavy travel category visitors reveals a very different profile. In fact, these non-travel sites fall into the shipping (FedEx, UPS and USPS), office supplies (Staples and Office Depot), and entertainment planning (Ticketmaster and Citysearch) categories, which is more indicative of visits by administrative assistants to the “road warriors” than the “road warriors” themselves.

“By definition, Heavy users of travel content spend a lot of time on travel sites,” said Ivins. “What is less obvious is the list of sites where these consumers congregate outside the travel category. With comScore Segment Metrix H/M/L, marketers can define consumers behaviorally and then identify where to find them across the web-making media and promotion plans more targeted, more efficient and more effective.”